Classification of Composite Delaminations via Pitch-Catch Phased Array Ultrasound

Composites lifecycle management requires damage evolution models initialized by nondestructive evaluation of the damage state. Recent efforts to characterize composite impact damage via single-sided, pulse-echo, angle beam shear wave inspection were successful on constrained, simulated cases. This work explores a novel pitch-catch, full matrix capture phased array ultrasound setup capable of classifying the complete profile of synthetic surrogates in the presence of noise. The technique demonstrates the ability to classify three geometric characteristics of the delamination profile from the received ultrasound signals.